Click here to download* Arise My Love
composed by Christopher Lancaster for Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray.
The year's most talked-about show...
Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray
Continuing his tradition of thought-provoking work, Tony-winning choreographer Bill
T. Jones commemorates the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial with a production exploring
the life and legacy of this complex figure. Commissioned by Ravinia Festival, the
dance-theater evening showcases the sophisticated movement of his diverse dancers,
who will be accompanied by an original score for cello, guitar, piano and voice,
performed live. The films of Janet Wong will fill a striking, modern stage design,
while the conflicts that defined Lincoln’s time are embodied in the dance as the
swirling forces of a maelstrom. Singers and an actor deliver a probing and uplifting
libretto drawn from Shakespeare, the Old Testament, the poems of Whitman, and Lincoln’s
own words. The phrase taken from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address to serve as
title the work, Fondly Do We Hope . . . Fervently Do We Pray, captures the
vision of the piece: an examination of what Lincoln and his time mean today, and
our hopes for the future.
The music chosen by Jones is co-composed by Jerome Begin, Christopher Lancaster
and George Lewis, Jr. The movement excerpted here is titled Arise. Composed by Lancaster,
it sets a text excerpted from The Song of Solomon as given in the King James
version of the Bible.
CHRISTOPHER ANTONIO WILLIAM LANCASTER (bandleader and electric cello) is a composer
and performing artist living in New York. His live and recorded music is created
by the processing of acoustic cello sound through real-time samplers, audio effects
and filtering. He composes predominately for theater, dance and his band The Black
Sounds. His compositions have been performed at U.C. Irvine; UCLA; U.C. Berkeley;
the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; the Biennale De La Danse, in Lyon; Bellevue
Teatret; Kanon Hallen in Copenhagen; the Kaleidoscope Festival and Sergio Porto
in Rio de Janeiro; Dance Theater Workshop; Symphony Space; the 42nd Street Duke;
the New Victory Theater; Tisch School of the Arts at NYU; the Joyce and Joyce Soho,
in New York; and the American Dance Festival at Duke University. Currently Lancaster
is working on commissions from Staccato Movimento, Palindrome Inter.media, Colleen
Thomas and Sean Curran, and making videos for YouTube. He can be contacted at ChrisLancaster@mac.com.
JEROME BEGIN (keyboards) studied music composition at Ohio University with Mark
Phillips and studied piano and music for dance, both accompaniment and composition,
with André Gribou. He has received commissions by The Juilliard School, Hubbard
Street Dance Chicago, Sacramento Ballet, Alabama Ballet, Richmond Ballet, and many
other dance companies throughout the United States. His works have been performed
in the United States, Korea and Japan. A member of the staff at The Juilliard School
(Dance Division), Begin also works as a composer, performer, teacher and dance accompanist
in Brooklyn, New York, where he currently resides.
GEORGE LEWIS, JR., (guitar and vocals) is a Dominican-born songwriter and performer.
In addition to his composing credits with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company,
Isabel Lewis (The Labor Union), and theater companies in Copenhagen, Denmark, he
plays rock ’n’ roll music with his friends under George Lewis, Jr., and a band called
Drug Rug. His music can be heard at
www.myspace.com/georgelewisjunior.
Keep up with the latest news about this extraordinary production
http://billtjones.org/new/bills_blog/
http://www.fondlydowehope.com
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